Learning the Value of a Dollar

When Associate Professor Michelle Cull began teaching a course at Western Sydney University on financial planning, she noticed that although students had a strong interest in basic personal finance, they lacked knowledge.  

"It was a surprise to see how little students understood basic personal finance, even when they were enrolled in an advanced business-related subject," says Cull. "I’ve seen high-achieving students let their grades slip, or not submit assignments on time. Often it would come back to a financial situation affecting their sleep and mental well-being." 

To bridge the gap, she considered creating a tool that offers students advice before they make  financial decisions. Assisted by Professor Catherine Attard in the School of Education, she partnered with UniBank — a bank focused on serving the university sector — and a developer from Western’s Launch Pad startup incubator, to design a personal finance app specifically for university students in Australia, called Wallet$mart.  

The app includes features and resources covering seven crucial areas for student life: borrowing, budgeting, buying a car, education fees, employment, moving out of home, and saving. When they sign up, students are tested on their knowledge of personal finance. This generates a 'Wallet$mart score' that students are encouraged to improve upon as they learn from in-app resources. 

In a survey conducted after five months of app use, Cull found that 75% of the students using it felt it had positively influenced their financial knowledge and money management habits. Students who used all features of the app answered 81% more accurately on questions commonly used to test basic financial literacy than students who weren’t using the app. 

Budgeting was one of the features that the students found to be most useful; this helped them save more money and plan expenditure. Several students looking to buy a car made the decision to postpone the purchase after they used the app.  

"It made them realise that it’s not just the upfront cost, but the ongoing costs of maintenance, petrol, tolls, parking and insurance that they need to consider. It’s great that students were able to make those informed decisions and understand that to purchase that car, they would have to budget for it," says Cull.

Plans are underway to add more content that motivates students to learn further, for example a certification to recognise knowledge, as well as versions that target different cohorts, such as high-school students and teachers.

"Poor money management could affect these students for the rest of their lives," Cull adds.

"As students pay big tuition fees to universities to study, we have an obligation to ensure that we help them while they navigate through their finances."